Rotary's Africa Hope

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ORDER ROTARY'S AFRICA HOPE
PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL HERE

An introduction by Gordon McInally
RIBI President 2004 - 2005

"I chose to visit Africa specifically to see the scale of the problem and to observe the work being done by Hope and Homes for Children. I must confess I was unprepared for what I saw, particularly in Rwanda. There is still much evidence of the genocide that took place in the country ten years ago.

Many children have been left with nothing as a consequence of the killing and the subsequent AIDS epidemic. There is no doubt of the urgent need for the work being carried out in Africa and I am excited that we will involve local Rotarians in Rwanda and South Africa. Before leaving Africa, I made two promises to the children I had met; to tell people about them and to try and help them.

Rotary is celebrating a century of service to communities this year and we must give our support through funding and service to these children to fulfil my promise and give them a future."

FACTS:

In 1994 an estimated one million people were killed in 100 days in Rwanda.By the end of 2001 there were 613,000 orphans of which nearly 300,000
were orphans of the
AIDS epidemic.

In South Africa by 2005 approximately one million children under the age of 15 will have lost their mothers to AIDS.

Every 14 seconds,
AIDS turns a child
into an orphan.

To alleviate children's despair and deprivation, Rotary's Africa Hope project aims to support 5,000 children in 1,000 of the poorest child-headed and grandparent-headed families in Rwanda and South Africa.

With £1,000 a family can be rescued from crisis. The money will be spent over three years and transform a family's future in a thorough and sustainable way.

Rotary's Africa Hope
will provide:

- Shelter, food and access to medicine.
- Stability - from practical advice and guidance.
- Education and Training - for long term development and self-reliance

For more information and relevant materials, please contact:

Your district
International Service Chairman.

OR

Jenny Marshall,
Hope and Homes for Children rotary@hopeandhomes.org
01722 790111

Since we were founded in 1994 individual Rotarians have heard of our work and told their clubs, who in turn told others in their Districts. In District 1030, Governor Jim Suthering introduced us to Rodney Huggins who supported Hope and Homes in his Presidential year (97/98). .

Founder Director of Hope and Homes Mark Cook is an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Frome Selwood, and in 1998 was awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship. Two of our Country Directors, Dr Tseggai Gherezghiher in Eritrea and Bohdan Rymarenko in Ukraine as well as Imaculee Vidivi, our Trauma Counsellor in Rwanda are Rotarians.

Ten years on and it is no exaggeration to say that Hope and Homes For Children would not have been able to help the children it does today, if it hadn’t been for the early and sustained support from many individual Rotarians, their clubs, their Districts and RIBI.